VA CIO Roger Baker Resigns - UPDATED

...Baker's resignation notice comes shortly after the secretaries of the DoD and the VA announced the end of iEHR development. An insider who spoke on condition of anonymity said Baker's departure is voluntary and not directly tied to the iEHR decision, although the rolling back of a project identified closely with him was a factor. "He's exhausted," the insider said.

Defense meanwhile has already released a request for information on third generation EHRs, stating that it plans to buy a new EHR to replace its legacy systems, including the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, more commonly known as AHLTA. Baker's departure is set to occur months before a planned wider rollout of the $537 million Veterans Benefits Management System, a paperless benefits management processing system currently installed in 20 of 56 regional offices. Its development has been problematic.

During a Jan. 30 call with reporters, Baker attributed problems experienced in the regional offices with VBMS to the simultaneous implementation on the same infrastructure of a separate customer relationship management system application for call centers. The call center application and VBMS access the same data, Baker said, but the department has since separated implementation of the two systems, he said. "We've had no performance issues on VBMS since we did that separation," Baker said. VBMS problems have persisted, the insider said. We've asked the VA to respond to specific allegations and will update when we can get further information...